Darnell Williams guilty in killing of Alaysha Carradine, 8

Alaysha Carradine, 8, shot to death on a sleepover in Oakland on July 15, 2013.

Alaysha Carradine, 8, shot to death on a sleepover in Oakland on July 15, 2013.

Photo: Family Photo, Courtesy Of Carradine Family

Photo: Family Photo, Courtesy Of Carradine Family

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Alaysha Carradine, 8, shot to death on a sleepover in Oakland on July 15, 2013.

Alaysha Carradine, 8, shot to death on a sleepover in Oakland on July 15, 2013.

Photo: Family Photo, Courtesy Of Carradine Family

Darnell Williams guilty in killing of Alaysha Carradine, 8

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An Oakland man was found guilty Friday of capital murder in the killings of an 8-year-old girl at a sleepover in 2013 and a 22-year-old man during a robbery in Berkeley later that year.

An Alameda County jury also found Darnell Williams, 25, guilty of three special circumstances that could lead to a death sentence: lying in wait, committing multiple murders and committing a murder in the course of the robbery.

He was also convicted on three attempted murder charges, personal and intentional discharge of a firearm, shooting at an inhabited dwelling, and possession of a firearm by a felon.

Jurors were ordered to return to Alameda County Superior Court in Oakland on May 16 to begin the death penalty phase of the trial.

As the verdict was announced, Williams stared straight ahead, showing no emotion.

The jury’s decision comes after a lengthy trial for the slayings of 8-year-old Alaysha Carradine on July 17, 2013, and Anthony Medearis, whom Williams shot and killed during a robbery at a dice game in Berkeley almost three months later.

“We’re happy. We appreciate the closure we got,” Medearis’ aunt, Jackie Winters, said outside the courtroom.

Over the course of 13 days of testimony from more than 30 witnesses, Deputy District Attorney John Brouhard painted Williams as a vigilante angry over the killing in Berkeley of a friend, Jermaine Davis, hours before Alaysha was shot.

Williams went to the apartment on Wilson Avenue looking for Antiown York, who he believed was responsible for killing Davis, Brouhard said. The apartment belonged to York’s ex-girlfriend and the mother of his two children.

The prosecutor said Williams knocked on the door and started shooting before it opened. Alaysha was mortally wounded and died at a hospital.

One of 13 bullets fired by Williams also wounded Alaysha’s close friend, Amara York, and her 4-year-brother and grandmother.

Much of the prosecution’s case rested on the testimony of two women, Williams’ ex-girlfriend Britney Rogers and another acquaintance, Laquana Nuno, both of whom said that Williams confessed to the shooting.

Defense attorneys Deborah Levy and Darryl Billups asked jurors to distance themselves from the emotional nature of much of the testimony. They argued that neither Rogers or Nuno were credible, noting that Nuno was initially charged with second-degree murder in Medearis’ death but took a plea deal in exchange for her testimony against Williams.

Brouhard argued that each woman knew details of Alaysha’s death that had never been released to the media and corroborated the other’s stories despite not knowing each other.

On Sept. 8, 2013, Williams allegedly shot and killed Medearis, with whom he was “supposedly friends.” The slaying happened on the 1400 block of Eighth Street in Berkeley, in an alleged robbery attempt during a dice game.